Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, in the only debate in the state's current election campaign, went blank for several seconds during her opening statement last week--a moment when no one was going to interrupt her--and the coverage created a small firestorm of attention.

The Associated Press coverage (from which I won't quote, since AP likes to go after and charge bloggers for doing so) goes into excruciating detail in describing the silent moment and concludes it's a disaster for...